Trump to Friends After “Sh*thole” Comment: Wha? What Did I Say?

As our nation’s diplomats are in panic mode, rushing about to try and smooth over the ruffled feathers of those nation’s Trump insulted with his “Sh*thole” comment, the greater damage may only be realized in days ahead.

The world is already on edge, given Trump’s penchant for saying all the wrong things at all the wrong times. They don’t know if he can be counted on, or not.

Now he insults a great many of our allies.

As Erick Erickson pointed out last night, Haiti was one of the nations that sided with the U.S., when the United Nations voted to condemn the announcement of moving our embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. Norway – the place Trump wants to see more immigrants from – voted against us.

Just some perspective.

Earlier today, our ambassadors to Botswana and Senegal, along with the top U.S. diplomat in Haiti, were all called to explain to their hosts what Trump meant and why he would say such a hostile thing.

The Trump White House was in damage control mode, taking to TV interviews to explain how this was all 47th upside-down, backwards chess.

Undersecretary of State Steve Goldstein, in charge of U.S. public diplomacy, said Trump has the right to “make whatever remark he chooses,” calling it the benefit of being president. He said Trump’s comments notwithstanding, it was diplomats’ obligation to send the message to other countries that the United States cares “greatly about the people that are there.”

I think they probably missed that message.

“Will they have to work extra hard to send it today? Yes, they will, but that’s OK,” Goldstein said. “That’s part of the responsibility that they have. It doesn’t change what we do.”

I don’t think any of them expect to work this hard.

Meanwhile, rather than really taking into consideration why people might be deeply offended by all this, the president is trying to gauge the public outrage and explain himself to associates and friends, in private.

As his comments, disclosed by participants in the meeting, ricocheted around the world, Trump made calls to friends and outside advisers to judge their reaction to the tempest, said a person who spoke to Trump but wasn’t authorized to discuss a private conversation.

He wasn’t apologetic, the person said. Instead, Trump blamed the media for distorting his meaning, arguing his description of “shithole” was not racist but rather a straightforward assessment of some nations’ depressed conditions. Trump also said he believed he was expressing what many people think, according to the person.

Yes. How dare the media distort the meaning of what he said by reporting it.

And we’ve heard the argument that he was talking about the depressed condition of those nations. Nobody is denying that part. And as we’ve seen from his hateful supporters, he was expressing what many think. The world is full of awful people.

What he apparently has missed is that when you use that term while talking about human beings, you give the impression that your belief is sh*thole countries produce sh*thole people.

It’s offensive, and he has no idea why, which is probably the worst part.

Ambassador James Jeffrey, the former U.S. envoy to Turkey and Iraq under Bush, said the ramifications of Trump’s remarks extended far beyond the countries he insulted. He said the “shithole” comment, in particular, would rattle European nations who fear a return to the xenophobic world view that devastated the continent during World War II.

“Where this is going to hurt us is with the Europeans when we turn to them for other things that require a you-just-have-to-trust-us kind of thing, like right now on Iran,” Jeffrey said. “It makes it very hard for them to go out on a limb with things he’s asking them to do.”

And many nations that voted to condemn us with the U.N. now feel quite justified in their vote.

Trump could do his image so much good if he would come forward to explain those remarks.

If he said the remarks were made in frustration and came out wrong, apologized, said he’d practice more self-control and sensitivity in the future, he probably wouldn’t win over everybody, but it would definitely be better than leaving things as they are, now.